Health and Medicine

An artificial disc being studied as a replacement for damaged discs of the spine has been approved to move into Phase II trials, making it available to more patients, according to John J. Regan, M.D., director of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Institute for Spinal Disorders. A recently completed Phase I study compared the prosthesis to traditional fusion. In that phase, patients were randomized, with one having a fusion operation for every two that received the artificial disc. Now all patien

Simple communication technique may improve health outcomes among diabetes patients, but is underused by physicians

Diabetes management may improve when physicians use an interactive communication technique with patients. Unfortunately, physicians underuse this simple strategy, according to a new study, which appears in the January 13, 2003 issue of The Archives of Internal Medicine.

Prior research has shown that patients fail to recall or comprehend as much as half of what t

A study conducted on 404 patients at several U.S. sites has determined that a new drug called Rasagiline effectively treats early-stage Parkinson’s disease. The study was reported in the December Archives of Neurology.

“These findings are especially important since hopes for treating Parkinson’s with fetal cells were recently dashed,” said Technion-Israel Institute of Technology Professor Moussa Youdim, who developed Rasagiline with Prof. John Finberg of the Department of Ph

Human heart tissue has for the first time been created in the laboratory.

Generated from embryonic stem cells at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, the tissue could be used for testing and creating new drugs, for genetic studies, for tissue engineering and for studying the effects of various stresses on the heart.

“Everyone imagines the possibilities of embryonic stem cells in repairing broken hearts, but stem cell technology offers even more — and it offers it muc

Through the study of fat storage in nematode worms, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas have formulated a new model for understanding the mechanisms of obesity and diabetes in humans.

Their work appears in today’s issue of Developmental Cell.

“Obesity and its associated diseases are now among the most important medical conditions in the world,” said Dr. Jonathan M. Graff, senior author of the study and associate professor in the Center for Developmen

Both sides of the brain play a role in processing emotional communication, with the right side stepping in when we focus not on the “what” of an emotional message but rather on how it feels.

By studying blood flow velocity to each side of the brain, Belgian psychologists have opened a window onto the richness and complexity of human emotional communication. Their research appears in the January 2003 issue of Neuropsychology, published by the American Psychological Association (APA).